Patients are still being put at risk at Stafford Hospital, according to the trust’s new chief executive who warned today he was prepared to close down failing wards.

In a frank interview with the Express & Star, Antony Sumara, who joined Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust on August 3, said he was prepared to use a “nuclear option” as a last resort to close down wards and dismantle nursing teams who failed to improve quickly enough.

He said he still had “concerns” over the way care was being delivered at the Weston Road hospital and added he had seen with his own eyes examples of bad practices.

Describing some stories of poor care as “outrageous” Mr Sumara said he planned to ensure the trust listened to patients who had suffered.

It is six months since the scandal of poor care was revealed in a damning report by the Healthcare Commission and Mr Sumara warned it would take longer to improve the situation.

He admitted some staff attitudes and behaviour towards patients was still unacceptable but pledged to act on complaints and take disciplinary action against workers found to be acting inappropriately.

The 55-year-old stated he was now confident of what needed to be done to transform the hospital but admitted a lot of the problems were “embedded” into the culture of the trust from nursing level through to senior managers.

He described his four main themes as creating a culture of caring, taking a zero-harm approach to care, listening to patients and public, improving staff levels, attitude and skills and finally getting on with the job.

He also revealed the extent of the financial crisis facing the hospital which is predicting a cash shortage at the end of the financial year of £7 million with an agreement still to be made on an additional £5 million bill for the ambitious transformation plan.

Despite the money worries Mr Sumara said his focus was on patient care and nothing else and that getting the care right would ultimately save the hospital money.

He said: “I still have concerns about some of the things that go on in this hospital and we need to make sure they stop. It is unacceptable for these things to still be happening and I don’t want to be a chief executive of a trust associated with these sorts of things.

“There are some staff that I don’t want to be working here but that will be the minority. The majority are great. Any member of staff being rude or behaving poorly towards patients will be taken through the disciplinary procedure.”

He added: “I’m almost embarrassed to say we need to create a culture of caring at the hospital.

“This means that patients are fed, watered and taken to the toilet when they want. It means patients being welcomed with a smile.

“I’ve seen with my own eyes that some of these things are not happening and that’s unacceptable.”

Members of the Cure the NHS campaign group are now working with Mr Sumara to try and improve the hospital and founder of the group Julie Bailey described his straight talking as “refreshing.”

She said: “We couldn’t have asked for a better person to come to the hospital. He’s being open and honest with us.

She added: “We do think he needs to close parts of the hospital in the interests of patient safety so he can train the staff.”